Candy corn projects

I used to love candy corn. I would eat multiple bags of candy corn during the month of October. In the last few years I have lost some of my sweet tooth, and now I have a more common reaction to candy corn - just thinking about it makes my teeth hurt.

I still like the idea of candy corn, and I try a few pieces every year. And I love Halloween. This year I'm not making any elaborate Halloween costumes (Isaac wants to be Spiderman, available at Target for $14.99), so I've been working on a couple other Halloween projects. The first I finished is a candy corn hat for Ethan.



I used Woolly Wormhead's Rocketeer pattern, with size US7 needles and Cascade 220 yarn. I worked the pattern for a 16" head circumference, making 2 extra short rows in each section. He has a 15" head now, and this fits perfectly. To used intarsia to make the candy corn colors. 10 stitches are yellow, 14 are orange and 10 are white.

The second project I finished is a set of trivets with some Halloween fabric scraps (including a candy corn print!) that I've had in my stash for years. The pattern is from the book Patchwork, Please! It's a paper-piecing pattern and it worked out just perfect for using up the little scraps of fabric I had. I want to try this pattern again with fussy-cut prints in the center.



I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! Don't eat too much candy corn ;)

Divided basket

I find myself toting a lot of baby stuff around lately. I try to be a minimalist, but babies seem to need so many things. I made a divided basket (pattern from Noodlehead here) to hold all of Ethan's diaper changing supplies.



Not only does it corral all the diapers, wipes, creams, etc in one place, but it lets me tote everything around with one hand. This is so convenient. We spend most of the day on the ground floor and Ethan sleeps in our second floor bedroom at night, so we have two different diaper changing areas. Instead of maintaining separate stacks of wipes and diapers in each changing area, I just bring the basket upstairs and downstairs with me. There's room in the basket to throw an extra outfit and swaddle in for nights, too. I'm so glad I made this!

Baby kimonos

These adorable kimonos are from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book. They are so quick! And also so teeny! Here's Ethan in a kimono a few weeks ago, when he was around 8 lbs. The kimono fit him with a couple inches of positive ease.



Here's Ethan in a kimono now, when he's 10.5 lbs and working on growing a second chin. He won't be wearing these kimonos for much longer!

Even though they don't fit for long, these kimonos are well worth the effort. They took me less than an hour to make, and I think they are really easy to put on babies - there are no tight sleeves or cuffs for tiny fingers to get stuck in.

Finish it up Friday: ticker tape pillow

A small finish this week- a quilted ticker tape pillow for our sofa. Inspired by Crazy Mom Quilts' ticker tape tutorial.



I used a gluestick to glue all the scraps in place, then I straight-line quilted the pillow front. The scraps started to fray immediately, so I quilted close to the edge of each little scrap. The fraying has slowed down considerably now.

It felt good to use up little scraps in this project, but now my impulse to save scraps is even stronger. I find myself saving teeny bits of fabric that weeks ago I would have trashed without hesitation. ::sigh::

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday

I scream, you scream...

...we all scream for ice cream!


Isaac is thrilled that he and his brother have matching shirts. I think he'll realize soon that matching shirts are just a ploy to get him to wear a handmade shirt (with buttons and a collar, and without superheros), and then he'll be mad at me. But for as long as it lasts I'll be taking advantage of the fact that he wants to match his little brother.

I made another Simplicity 2907 shirt for big brother, size 4T. He is turning 4 soon and this shirt is perfect width-wise but I think I'll add an inch or more of length in the next shirt. Little brother's shirt is just a bit of applique with satin stitch around the edges. The fabric is an old Riley Blake print that I've had in my stash for a while.

You can't see it in these pictures, but these are the best buttonholes I have ever made. Up until now I've used the basic Bernina #3 buttonhole foot, which lets you make buttonholes but it does not make great button holes. The buttonholes looked handmade, and not in a good way. Then I bought buttonhole foot with a slide, like this one but without the spring or the brand name, and with a $7 price tag. Holy smokes! It is amazing. My buttonholes look 600% better than before. This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities!